Harry and Tom ran out to the road, and stood there petrified with astonishment.
Where was the snow?
It was all gone, excepting a little here and there in the shade of the fence corners. The day had turned out to be quite mild, and the sun, which was now nearly at its noon height, had melted it all away.
Here was a most unlooked-for state of affairs! What was to be done? The boys ran back to the sled, and the colored men ran out to the road, and everybody talked and nobody seemed to say anything of use.
At last Dick Ford spoke up:
"I tell ye what, Mah'sr Harry! I say, just let's go 'long," said he.
"But how are you going to do it?" said Harry. "There's no snow."
"I know that; but de mud's jist as slippery as grease. That thar team kin pull it, easy 'nuff!"
Harry and Tom consulted together, and agreed to drive out to the road and try what could be done, and then, if the loaded sled was too much for the team, they would throw off the wood and go home with the empty sled.
There was snow enough until they reached the road—for very little had melted in the woods—and when they got fairly out on the main road the team did not seem to mind the change from snow to thin mud.